NASA is set to test a supersonic aircraft which has a speed equivalent of traveling between New York and London in around just three-and-a-half hours.
In January earlier this year, NASA unveiled the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft during a ceremony hosted by prime contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works at its Palmdale, California facility.
The aircraft was presented as a ‘one-of-a-kind experimental airplane’ which could ‘revolutionize air travel‘ as a result of its insane speed.
The airplane measures 99.7 feet long and 29.5 feet wide and has a ‘thin, tapered nose’ which ‘accounts for almost a third of its length,’ NASA’s website states.
This nose helps ‘break up the shock waves that would ordinarily result in a supersonic aircraft causing a sonic boom’.
The cockpit is subsequently located halfway down the aircraft and doesn’t have a forward-facing window – gulp.
Instead, the Quesst team – of which the X-59 is at the center of their mission – designed ‘a series of high-resolution cameras feeding a 4K monitor in the cockpit’.
And look, while you may not be as much into the technology of planes, you can’t deny being impressed with the ridiculously fast speed the aircraft can reach.
NASA details: “The X-59 is at the center of NASA’s Quesst mission, which focuses on providing data to help regulators reconsider rules that prohibit commercial supersonic flight over land. For 50 years, the US and other nations have prohibited such flights because of the disturbance caused by loud, startling sonic booms on the communities below.
“The X-59 is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound, or 925 mph. Its design, shaping and technologies will allow the aircraft to achieve these speeds while generating a quieter sonic thump.”
To put that speed into a bit more context for you…
NASA’s X-59 was unveiled earlier this year (NASA/ Lockheed Martin Skunk Works)
If the plane travels at 925mph, the time it would take to travel between London‘s Heathrow Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, US – which measures 3,442 miles – would be around three-and-a-half hours.
When the aircraft was first unveiled, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said: “This is a major accomplishment made possible only through the hard work and ingenuity from NASA and the entire X-59 team.
“In just a few short years we’ve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time.”
Associate administrator for aeronautics research at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Bob Pearce, added: “It’s thrilling to consider the level of ambition behind Quesst and its potential benefits.
“NASA will share the data and technology we generate from this one-of-a-kind mission with regulators and with industry. By demonstrating the possibility of quiet commercial supersonic travel over land, we seek to open new commercial markets for US companies and benefit travelers around the world.”
NASA’s X-59 is expected to take its first flight this year (NASA)
The plane is set to take its first flight at some stage later this year.
NASA reports it will fly the aircraft ‘over selected US communities and then survey what people on the ground hear when it flies overhead’.
It resolves: “The agency will share data on these reactions to the quieter sonic “thumps” with regulators, who could then consider rules that currently ban commercial supersonic flight over land because of noise concerns.”
So keep your eyes – and ears – peeled.
